Preacher’s Wife Teaching Life

This year we were awarded a whole extra day of the year to work/play/pray/sleep/whatever! It just so happened that this leap day was  a BEAUTIFUL day in Texas (see picture --->), so our extra day was quite a blessing. We wanted to use this extra day as an opportunity to take a LEAP of faith. We felt like a leap of faith entailed praying and asking God what he wanted us to do - a challenge of sorts - and then doing it! We wanted to get out of our boxes and allow God to ask anything of us. While praying all month about our leap of faith, we've been simultaneously praying about a vision for our church and in our personal lives. It's not surprising that these things we've been praying about coincide. You might know a little of our history but I'll give you a refresher if you don't. My dad was the pastor of our small church for about 20 years when my husband felt the call through countless prophetic words that he was to be a preacher and that his ministry was in p...

This week we covered Joshua 24 . Basically, Joshua reflects on all that's happened and tells the people to remember God. ( Joshua:14, 15 ) This post is a quick and dry summary of allllll my previous posts (which are linked into the points listed below): 1) God established a leader in Joshua; Moses was a powerful leader and his he passed his mantle to Joshua, like a spiritual inheritance. ---> His first responsibility was to come under authority. ------> Each leader has a leader to come under. Even the highest power on Earth has to submit to someone, namely God. Coming under authority by submitting to their guidance is of utmost importance to your well being. 2) A partnership with the Lord is established. ---> God does his part first and then humans need to do their part. For example, God sent a hail storm in Joshua 10 and the people still had to fight the battle with those remaining. ---> God has an opinion about his dominion and we could do well t...

In one of my earlier posts this week , I talked about living a spiritual life as opposed to being caught up in a physical world. When you get down to it, you might be left scratching your head, wondering what that actually means. While I'm young and still learning, let me offer you some tips: 1) Fall in love with God and...everyone! Read how in my previous post . 2) Have an interactive relationship with God. Make praying throughout your day a priority and don't always do all the talking. Listen a little bit and watch God reveal new and exciting things to you. Find new ways to pray and include it in your daily routine. 3) Say "no" to bad things around you. We are all tempted everyday by anger, greed, lust, and other temptations. Don't be weak! Say "no" and live the good life. If you fall into something before you even realized you said "yes", get out! Pray, repent, and ask Jesus to bring you back on track. 4) Do what God tells you to ...

My husband's passion for hearing God and sharing his words is inspiring. The knowledge God gives him to articulate to his people is astounding. It amazes me that my husband holds these spiritual words within him and nearly bursts with excitement on Sunday trying to get it all out to a physical world. Which brings up Joshua 23. This chapter is Joshua's final charge to the leaders and future generations. What is a charge? It's kind of like issuing a challenge and a warning all at the same time. At weddings, the minister charges the couple with the responsibility associated with marriage...in Joshua, he is charging the leaders to beware of the physical world around them. They've driven out the big tribes from the Promised Land but a few stragglers still remain and Joshua warns the leaders to avoid any entanglements with them. Temptation is sure to be present among these stragglers and they would be wise to remember all God has done for them. He said: 6 “Be very strong;...

This weekend, my sisters, my mom and I went on a girls weekend in the metroplex. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to have a weekend with just females...especially females I really love. I left my boys (my husband and doggy) at home to have a man's weekend. They rented movies, laid in bed, and did whatever boys do when they are left to themselves...? I also kind of left a few chores at the house that I hoped would be finished when I got home but I didn't really say anything about it on my way out. Needless to say, when I got home the house was in...an undesirable state. To their credit, I got home earlier than expected and they didn't get the last minute time they were counting on to clean up. I walked in the door, and saw all the little messes left behind (laundry, dishes, dirty floor, etc) and was just SO not happy. I started doing that mad cleaning thing where you're just tearing through the house putting things away, throwing dirty clothes in the basket, slamming ...

My hubby started last Sunday's sermon with a hilarious recounting of the paintball excursion he participated in with some of the guys from church. He is ex military so he's no stranger to this sort of atmosphere and has experience in rocking courses like the one provided at the paintball park. HOWEVER, it has been many moon since his military days AND the guys he was participating with weren't necessarily military trained - great teammates and loads of fun but there was an obvious miscommunication when my hubby reverted back to military lingo. He told the story of the different levels provided at this course, the over zealous 12 years olds wanting to dominate this thing, and his inability to communicate properly with his teammates. He detailed this place that everyone wanted to get to so they could take cover and not get shot. A place of refuge that could allow them to have a one up on the other players. A safe place. We're to a place in Joshua where all the tribes ar...

When you're waiting in line for something REALLY awesome, do you: a) push your way to the front to make sure you get what's yours? b) wait patiently in line while watching the crazies elbow each other for something we're all going to get anyway? c) wait until someone buys it for you so you don't have to deal with the effort? Joshua 14-19 tells a story of these three types of receivers as he lines out the allotment of the land. Again in these chapters, there are a lot of names and places that can make your head spin but Pastor Dad (David) was able, through God's revelation, to line up these chapters in a much more relevant way. We are to the point where Joshua is getting old and is losing a little steam. He still believes in the promise and wants to move on but is not as able to. Caleb came in with fresh energy and reminded Joshua to allot the land to its respective owners. So by Caleb's prodding, they explore the land, allot it to appropriate tribes, and...

Jarrod and I like to attend these pastor conferences in the city about once a year. A couple years ago, the pastor of the church felt like his son had a word from God for the people in attendance. His son was in his mid-teens and stood awkwardly at the front with a Bible wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and converse shoes. He timidly relayed the message God gave him and we could all feel the anointing on him but knew he had some growing to do (don’t we all?!). Now let’s fast forward a couple years to this last weekend at the youth conference. This young boy, who so timidly spoke years ago as an emerging pastor, has now come fully into his gifting as an adult. He stood up at the front with a presence of God’s power and a witty, dynamic personality. He held the audience captive for his humorous stories and powerful words from God. It is easy to see he is OWNING his gift. He’s taken possession of what God has given him and is walking fully in it as a confident, Spirit filled speaker. It isn’t ha...

If you haven't read Joshua 8, read it here In chapter 7, Achan stole treasure and he, his family, and the nation was punished. In chapter 8, God tells the nation when they take Ai that they can have all the spoils they want. I found myself and some of my friends asking, "Why?!? Didn't they JUST get in trouble for, what my husband and I like to call, squirreling some loot away??" Well, my husband explained that it was because the nation had already been justly disciplined and now God is back onto taking the Promised Land for his people and blessing them. I relate this to how I interact with our well loved dog, Sergeant. He's a too smart, stubborn yorkie who gets his way too often. When I'm having a church group at home he likes to get mouthy so I have to exile him to our bedroom while we eat. After we are done I let him out. When he least expects it, I ask him to come back into the bedroom but having been disciplined that way before, he refuses. Refuses! I...

For Joshua 7, we had our youth group leader, Jason, preach and I think it is safe to say that everyone enjoyed it. He did such a good job of laying out the material in a clear way and pulling in his personal journey to make the passage more relatable. It helped this week, for me at least, that Joshua 7 was a little more fun to dissect than Joshua 6. Chapter 6 had some weighty material but was pretty cut and dry as far as the storyline went. In Chapter 7, Joshua and the army were planning on going further into the Promised Land to claim, Ai. Ai was a small community so Joshua sent a small portion of the army (about 3000 people) to take the land. They went with the confidence from their former victory in Jericho and the knowledge that their army was bigger than Ai's. Bolstered with confidence and knowledge, they marched into Ai, fought with all they had, and ran out screaming like little children over their fear and defeat. 36 men died and the takeover was unsuccessful. When Jos...

Our church spent the past week discussing, praying about, and studying Joshua 6. We spend several nights, meetings, dinners, and lunches mulling over what God is saying through each passage. For me, this passage was a little dry - mostly full of instructions and the carrying out of those instructions - but after my husband's sermon on Sunday, God squeezed the juice out for us to "drink". Joshua 6 tells the story of the destruction of Jericho by way of Joshua, the army, the priests, and the ark marching around the walls that hid the city. For a long time, no one was allowed in and no one was allowed out. Because of their inability to go in or out - being handicapped by fear - there was no spirit left in them - no fight left. The army with Joshua was instructed to march around the walls once daily for 6 days and on the 7th day to walk 7 times, shout as loudly as possible, and the walls would fall down. After the walls fell, Joshua sent a special ops team to retrieve Raha...

This is my first attempt at posting a weekly synopsis of the sermon preached at our church(should I submit "praught" to the dictionary as being the past tense of preach?). I'd like to keep current information flowing through my blog instead of posting revelations as they come. We don't have internet at home yet because technology and Internet companies stink sometimes for people who live in the boonies so I will try my very hardest to post weekly based on our visits to town. This week my husband *praught* on Joshua 5. We have been working our way through the book of Joshua and Joshua's journey to the Promised Land. My husband has an unusual connection to Joshua and the transition of leadership from Moses to Joshua, so it's been really interesting to listen to him and my dad and Pastor Jim preach their way through this book. (If you want more on this, please email my husband at gfcstephenville@gmail.com) Their knowledge and wisdom of this book and the connect...

My mom, Kathie wrote this and I wanted to share it with you: When a man steps forward with a word from The Lord, we better pay attention.  That happened to me yesterday. Have you ever had a vision or dream of something that you would like to see happen?  I did, when I married David.  I really felt that God would take us to a place where there were beaches to pastor a church.  I learned early on that my vision was not the one that God had for us. We came to Dallas, Texas for seminary training, we thought we were going back to Pennsylvania in four years. That didn't happen. A little church in Stephenville, Texas needed a pastor.  There went the beach ministry, BUT God's vision for us was greater than ours. Looking back over the last 25 years, we can see His hand in the whole roller coaster ride.  That ride was both scary and exciting. The way we used to define our ministry was something like, who will come along side of us, believe in us, and suppor...